How To Use Instagram On Desktop Web Browser

Instagram is an online photo sharing social networking service that enables users to take pictures and record videos, apply digital filters to them, and share them on a variety of social networking services, including but not limited to Instagram’s own social network and messaging application. Registered users can upload photos to the service, which can be edited with various built-in filters, and organized with tags and location information.

Instagram has been compared to social networks including Facebook and Twitter, and has been described as a mix of the two. The service also has a social network aspect, which allows users to follow other users’ feeds and share content with other users.

There are, however, strategies for posting directly from a device, and I’ve been compiling guides for some of them. Several make use of third-party applications (Instagram Stalker) and utilities. Certain individuals make use of emulators. This is a how-to guide for using a standard web browser such as Chrome or Safari without purchasing a separate program or installing a software extension.

How to Use Instagram on a Desktop Web Browser

You can visit the Instagram website via a standard web browser on a desktop or laptop, although it’s a stripped-down edition, as you’ve probably already discovered.

Is signed into your account with a desktop application, you can access photographs, like them, and even comment on them, but you cannot upload new photos. There is no way to import them–the standard camera icon is missing, as follows:

However, there is a way to trick your browser into believing that you are viewing Instagram from a mobile device. It takes account of two factors. The first is that Instagram now displays a mobile-specific edition that contains the upload button. The second advantage is that you can fool Instagram into believing you’re using a handheld computer even though you’re using a laptop web browser. It employs a technique called user agent emulation or user agent spoofing (sometimes just UA spoofing). When you visit the site using this process, it looks pretty close to the standard version that you see in a web browser, except you’ll find that the camera icon for making new posts has been added:

I’ve compiled guides about how to do this for the main browsers; they’re included below.

However, it’s worth noting that this is not a black-hat, frowned-upon operation in the same way that spoofing phone numbers for phone spam is. Spoofing a user agent is a completely legal and often used technique for website monitoring. That is why the browser developer tools include it. Thus, you are not doing an illegal act by doing this.

Constraints

Before we venture into how-tos for individual browsers, it’s worth noting some of this method’s drawbacks.

This approach simulates the experience of using a mobile computer to navigate the Instagram website. This is not the same as utilizing an emulator such as Bluestacks to operate the Instagram software.

This is critical since not all features of the Instagram mobile app are accessible through the Instagram mobile website. If you can post a picture and caption it, certain simple Instagram functionality are unavailable through the web interface.

Filtration. You are not able to add filters.

Posts with many images. Instagram recently introduced the ability to upload several photos or videos in a single post. That’s not accessible on the website–you can only add one picture at a time to make a single article.

Tags embedded inside images. You will continue to tag anyone in the comment section, but not inside the frame.

After publication, captions are edited. After a post is uploaded, you could also use the mobile app to update the caption.

You can download Instagram images by using Instagram downloader.

Using Desktop Browser to post to Instagram

Until recently, this required installing a plugin in Firefox, but that has changed in recent releases. Therefore, ensure that you are using the most recent update of Firefox first.

To begin, navigate to Instagram.com and sign in with your username and password.

Navigate to Tools > Web Developer > Responsive Design Mode from the Firefox main menu. (Alternatively, you should turn it with a keyboard shortcut. On a Mac, the shortcut is CMD+OPT+M.)

After that, you can see a little, sensitive version of the web with the add picture icon. (You might be prompted to reload the page.) To switch to a wider viewport, click on the top bar that reads “no system picked” and pick a device with a larger screen).

I was unaware of this when I first began using Instagram, and I’m happy I discovered it, as I previously believed that the only options for desktop uploading were smartphone emulation tricks or subscription services.

Although some of those platforms through provide a more comprehensive or seamless experience, the Creator Studio is an excellent option for those of us on a budget…or who don’t want a few minor inconveniences to save money.

It’s time to start posting! Leave your thoughts in the comments below, or contact me if you have any doubts, comments, or complaints.